House votes to override Medicare veto

The House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to override President Bush’s veto of legislation that would undo a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare fees to physicians.

The lopsided 383-41 vote tally, which included 153 Republicans siding with all Democrats, was not a surprise given that the House passed the legislation on June 24, 355-59. President Bush vetoed the bill earlier Tuesday.

{mosads}The Senate is poised to act later Tuesday on an override vote, meaning the bill could become law before the day is out. The Senate passed the bill 69-30 on July 9. A two-thirds majority in both chambers is needed to override the veto.

If the vote in the upper chamber also is successful, it would mark just the third time Congress has overturned one of Bush’s vetoes, following a 2007 override of a water bill and a 2008 override of the farm bill. Bush has vetoed nine bills during his presidency.

“This is an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill as it was sent to the president of the United States,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). “Today, President Bush decided that the overwhelmingly majority of the Congress was wrong. … Thankfully, we don’t have to take no for an answer.”

The House Republican leadership was resigned to losing on the Medicare bill for the second time in three weeks. “I think we all know what’s going to happen today,” Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said before the vote.

The faction of Republicans who voted to sustain the veto highlighted cuts to Medicare Advantage plans as a key reason for their opposition.

Like congressional Republicans, Bush supports the underlying aim of the bill, which is to revoke the cut in Medicare payments to doctors that took effect on July 1. The president, however, objected to other provisions of the bill. Chiefly, Bush opposes the Democratic plan to offset the cost of the physician payment fix by reducing spending on private Medicare Advantage plans by as much as $14 billion.

“I support the primary objective of this legislation, to forestall reductions in physician payments. Yet taking choices away from seniors to pay physicians is wrong,” Bush wrote in the veto message he delivered to the House.

During the House vote in June, 129 Republicans jumped ship and supported the Democratic bill, which passed 355-59. Eighteen Republicans voted for it in the Senate.

House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) is among those who held fast in their opposition. “I know that’s not a popular position to take on this floor,” he said before the vote.

The prospects of a veto override in the Senate appear to be favorable. Though the measure passed the Senate by a narrower margin, many Republicans who voted for the bill are expected to vote to reject the veto.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) made a surprise return from cancer treatments in his home state to cast the deciding 60th vote earlier this month. Nine Republicans then backed away from their previous opposition and voted to advance the bill. Eight have since publicly committed to backing the override attempt.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), his party’s presidential standard-bearer, is in Washington Tuesday and expected to attend the vote and support the override. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is not expected to vote; he previously declared his opposition to the Medicare bill.